I have had large peppers on various plants in my greenhouse now for
4-5 weeks:
- Paprika (about 14 cm long)
- Hot Banana (about 10cm long)
- Various sweet peppers
- Trinidad non-bell peppers
The Paprika and Chillis have stayed resolutely green all this time (including some hot sunny periods in June/July). In the meantime the Trinidad peppers have produced fruit which has turned red and ripened nicely. Is there anything holding back the first two types?
Colin
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Not all peppers will ripen at the same rate. Some will be ready earlier than others and not all peppers turn red when they are ripe. Too many ripe peppers on the bush and the plant will stop flowering. Never let them all get completely ripe on the bush, or pepper production will stop. Once they are full size peppers, they are ready to eat.
Depending on the temperature, the hours of sunlight, the moisture and nutrient levels, pest pressures and so on, 'yes'.
The general answer is 'yes'. As a fruit ripens it sends the plant hormones that tell it not to set more fruit but to focus on ripening the one that is nearing success. For a fruiting plant, success = fertile seeds. The more fruit reaching advanced stages of ripeness, the less likely a plant is to set new blooms. It may well be that the plant will continue setting blooms occaisionally, but the quantity of them generally will decrease markedly.
Pay attention to the calendar. Once the weather turns chilly there will be no more blooms anyhow so you may want to let the last 'batch' of peppers finish ripening on the bush. I find that peppers in my garden are sufficiently prolific that I can get all I need by letting them all ripen. But then, we don't eat huge quantities of peppers and pick for the table as we go with a final flush of harvest in the fall.
In time you will learn to judge your response to the plants based on what you need from them. If you are growing them for fully ripe, don't pick them green and just accept that you may need to plant an extra few plants in the spring to get the quantity you need in the fall.
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